An on-line social network may be viewed as a platform to connect people in virtual space. An on-line social network may be a web-based platform, such as, e.g., a social networking web site, and may be accessed by a use via a web browser or via a mobile application provided on a mobile phone, a tablet, etc. An on-line social network may be a business-focused social network that is designed specifically for the business community, where registered members establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally. Each registered member may be represented by a member profile. A member profile may be represented by one or more web pages, or a structured representation of the member's information in XML (Extensible Markup Language), JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) or similar format. A member's profile web page of a social networking web site may emphasize employment history and education of the associated member. A member profile in an on-line social network system may also represent a group, a company, a school, etc. Member profiles in an on-line social network system may be referred to as simply profiles.
An on-line social network system may include a search system that permits members to search information, such as, e.g., jobs postings, people, etc., within an on-line social network. The searches within the on-line social network may be viewed as navigational (where the intent of the search—search intent—is to locate a specific item, e.g., a particular person) or exploratory (where the intent of the search is to scan through the available information in order to identify potentially interesting or useful items). A navigational search may be fairly specific (e.g., indicating the first and last name of a person). An exploratory search, on the other hand, may return a great number of search results, which may sometimes make it difficult to identify those search results that are most useful. A search system may process a search request by matching a search string against the stored content to determine, which documents or records contain the search string. The documents that contain the search string, or references to those documents, are returned as search results. A search system may obtain a search string, e.g., by accessing input provided by a user via a search box presented as part of Graphical User Interface (GUI).